Intelligence sources say US electric grid hacked by foreign spies

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
In yesterday’s edition, The Wall Street Journalquoted senior US intelligence sources, including former Homeland Security Department officials, who said that foreign spies have penetrated the electronic infrastructure of America’s electrical supply grid. The officials said the hackers, who have reportedly been traced to Russia and China, among other countries, do not currently appear intent on disrupting the system. Instead, they seem to be “on a mission to navigate [and map] the US electrical system and its controls”, allegedly so that they can sabotage it “during a crisis or war”. Interestingly, the discovery was reportedly made not by utility company technicians, but by US intelligence agents engaged in monitoring cyber-intrusions into the nation’s electronic infrastructure. Senior intelligence sources told The Wall Street Journal that US water, sewage and other critical infrastructure networks may also be in danger of electronic sabotage. The newspaper contacted Chinese and Russian government representatives, who denied any involvement in the hacking of America’s energy supply grid. One of the those contacted was Yevgeniy Khorishko, a Russian Embassy official in Washington, DC, who said simply that “Russia has nothing to do with the cyberattacks on the US infrastructure, or on any infrastructure in any other country in the world”. The Wall Street Journal allegations came a week after researchers in Canada reported the discovery of a gigantic cyberespionage ring located mainly in China. The researchers, from Ottawa’s SecDev group and the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies, said the ring had managed to infiltrate nearly 1,300 mainly government and corporate computers in at least 103 countries around the world.